Improving Decision Making About Feeding Options for Dementia

University of North Carolina (UNC)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Dementia

Treatments: Other: Feeding Options in Dementia Decision Aid

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT01113749

5R01NR009826 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

05-3105

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is a randomized trial to test whether a decision aid can help to improve the quality of decision making about feeding options in care of patients with dementia.

Full description

This research study is a cluster randomized controlled trial of a decision aid to improve decision-making about feeding options for patients with advanced dementia. Surrogate decision-makers in the nursing homes randomized to the intervention will review the decision aid and be prompted to discuss it with the primary health care provider, while those in the control sites receive usual care. We measure the immediate, 1 and 3 month effects of the decision aid on the quality of surrogate decision-making for nursing home residents with advanced dementia.

Enrollment: 256 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• dementia diagnosis
• advanced cognitive impairment
• feeding problem
• age >= 65
• surrogate decision maker

Exclusion criteria

• feeding tube decision made
• hospice
• BMI > 26
• major psychosis or developmental delay

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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256 participants in 2 patient groups

Decision support

Experimental group

Description:

Structured decision aid with prompting to share information in discussion with primary treating health care providers.

Treatment:

Other: Feeding Options in Dementia Decision Aid

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Usual care